Episode 104: Music Is More Than Technique
Mimi approaches Riff with exciting news: the violinist virtuoso, Piganini, has booked some recording studio time in town! Mimi and Riff rush to the recording studio, where a tiger is engineering a recording session for Julia Fordham. Midway through the song, Julia sighs, "I'm sorry, but this song really needs an audience." Suddenly a white-haired pig in a tuxedo enters the booth, claiming he needs to use the studio to test out his Stradivarius. This is none other than Piganini himself! He and Julia get into a quibble over who needs to use the studio more, when Mimi invites him over to Faffner Hall, explaining that they can record the upcoming "scales" concert he will give. But first, all three of them stay to make up the audience for Julia's song, "My Little Secret." Piganini is intrigued by the fact that Julia likes singing songs more than scales. When they arrive at Faffner Hall, they are greeted by a few Grunt-bags (paper bags who grunt). Piganini marvels at the beauty of the stage he will be performing on. Fughetta and the Wild Impresario overhear him playing his D major scale. They wonder where it's coming from, until the Grunt-bags show up and "let the news right out of the bag" that Piganini is here. Wild happily exclaims, "The proceeds from this concert will be able to pay all our bills!" Once Piganini finishes playing, Mimi asks what he will play at the concert. She and Riff are disappointed to find out that he will only play scales, whether he plays them fast or slow - they would rather hear him play a piece of music. He asks them to play a piece of music first, and they play Mimi's latest instrumental piece, "Toodle-oo For Two" with Mimi on sax and Riff on piano. Halfway through the song, Piganini dashes away, embarrassed and insulted. While mumbling of his plight, he passes Farkas in the boiler room. Farkas, who loves to see his tenants suffer, won't tell Mimi and Riff where Piganini went off to. At the ticket booth, Wild announces that the tickets are sold out, which disappoints the crowd of Frackles, penguins and chickens. Fughetta and Wild could not be more pleased about the profits, until Mimi and Riff rush in, looking for Piganini, who seems to be gone. Meanwhile, a janitor encounters Piganini hiding in the broom closet. He confesses he is afraid of the audience, because they want him to play music, when scales are all he knows. The janitor instructs Piganini how to turn scales into music, as he plays "Pig Foot Shuffle" on his guitar. Before you know it, they're in a jam session. When it's over, Piganini tells the janitor that he reminds him of Ry Cooder (whom it really is), which the janitor finds confusing: "Ry who?" Mimi, Riff and Wild are all in a depressed state, until Piganini enters the room with a newfound confidence. The show is ready to go on ... but Farkas has a trick up his sleeve. He approaches Piganini in his dressing room, and informs him that Faffner Hall does indeed have a ghost - just like he feared earlier. Farkas then coaxes the giddy Fughetta to go to Piganini and wish him luck (which, he hopes, will scare him out of his pigskin). When Fughetta enters, he runs away, but to Farkas' dismay, he runs towards the stage. Everyone cheers as he enters the stage, and upon finding out that the ghost he fears is actually a fan of his, he proceeds to play an elaborate expansion of the scales he could only play until now, accompanied by Riff on piano. He even invites Fughetta to join in with her harp, and they all make beautiful music together. __NOWYSIWYG__ 104